Kneron, a leading on-device edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions-provider based in San Diego, is today announcing it has hired Alex Lo as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). Lo, a former Corporate Vice President of Sales at NVIDIA in Taiwan, will be responsible for driving Kneron’s objective of enabling AI for everyone. Lo will play a key role in decision-making at the startup, which is backed by the likes of Alibaba, Qualcomm, Sequoia, Horizons Ventures, Himax and Sparklabs Taipei, and has raised over $70 million in Series A funding.
Throughout his 17 years at NVIDIA, Lo achieved record growth. Lo will continue this level of success and growth at Kneron and the startup is already set to announce a number of strategic partnerships in Q4.
Alex Lo, CSO of Kneron says: “I am excited to join such an ambitious and experienced team at Kneron. For such a young company, Kneron’s technology and accomplishments to date have impressed me. The onset of 5G will exponentially boost the demand for edge AI chips in IoT devices over the next decade. I am sure that Kneron will continue to impress not only me, but the AI device industry as a whole. The potential of Kneron is exhilarating and I cannot wait to see what we can accomplish.”
Lo is the latest in a string of high-profile and experienced hires at Kneron at a crucial juncture in the company’s growth, having just launched its latest flagship KL720 chip.
Albert Liu, CEO and Co-Founder of Kneron says: “We are delighted to welcome Alex to the team. Alex’s track record of continuous growth and experience in the industry will be key to Kneron’s success. I am confident that Alex will make a significant impact at Kneron and accelerate our trajectory at an exciting time for our business. With Gartner estimating there will be 41.6 billion IoT devices by 2025, Alex will help us to make sure we are partnering with the biggest names in the device industry and ensure Kneron’s chips will be the brain for smart devices.”
The executive team now boasts over a century’s worth of experience. Alex joins the following people at board level:
- Frank Chang (Co-founder): David Sarnoff Award-winning IEEE Fellow; the Wintek Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor at the Electrical Engineering Department of UCLA
- Daniel Yuan (Chief Architect): formerly Chief Architect of Kingdee Software; named to the “Top 20 People Influencing Software Development in China” by Programmer Magazine.
- Adrian Ong (Chief Commercial Officer): formerly Qualcomm’s Vice President Business Development; spent 25 years at Qualcomm and led global chipset launches from 2G to 5G
- Davis Chen (VP of Engineering): formerly Qualcomm Taipei Head of Engineering. In his 25 year tenure at Qualcomm, Chen won eight Qualcomm Annual Achievement Awards.
Lo joins Kneron as it continues to reinvent AI education, a key component of its strategy. Top AI education institutions in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the US, including University of Virginia, Notre Dame, and UCLA, have already adopted Kneron CEO Albert Liu’s new textbook and Kneron’s KNEO Stem USB devices.
When paired with a Raspberry Pi, these devices enable students to develop AI applications from home when they would previously have to rely on expensive GPU farms. It eliminates the need for on-campus hardware, which may be inaccessible during a pandemic. Lo will continue to refine the strategic rollout of Kneron’s AI education suite, helping more universities adopt modern AI learning materials and technology, and ensuring the AI developers of the future have the skills and resources they need.